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Only unexpected gifts make life worth living. What is life without such gifts? A burden, perhaps. But the existence of such moments which are totally unforseeable, make life boundlessly rich. If my lonely musings below are able to give anyone such unexpected happiness then I think my effort has been rewarded.
So, never expect, just live.

One of the key issues that continues to haunt Sikhs is how the traumatic events of the last 25 years can begin to be represented through the work of memorialization when the very horizon common to memory, history and forgetting seems to have been constantly slipping away from grasp. Always in retreat this horizon has made the effort of mourning and forgiveness almost impossibly difficult.

This conference will address new ways of thinking the events and legacy of the last 25 years, and their implications for the political future of Sikhs inside and outside India. The basic premise of this conference is that while the work of mourning and forgiveness is by no means easy, it is also by no means impossible. Part of the problem was that representation of Sikh issues at that time by scholarly, mediatic and state apparatuses was governed by frameworks that seemed unquestionable. In recent years, however, all sorts of changes at the academic and political level have forced scholars and related agencies to rethink these frameworks. Such changes would include: the crisis of secularism and the global resurgence of religion; a profound rethinking of the seemingly opposed nature of religion and violence; new theories of globalization; new inroads in the politics of knowledge construction; alternative ways of thinking about justice, law, the public space and the representation of minorities; the relevance of all of these thinks for international relations and the future of democracy etc.

This year's Sikh Students Conference attempts to shed light on the contemporary Sikh experience along with the event of 1984 through a Sikh vision of nation, religion and history. Amongst wider issues of Sikh spirituality, professors will engage the academic ground functional in converting the Sikhs’ spirit since the premier moment of colonialization. The 2009 conference marks an engagement with these issues as Sikhs continue to maintain the sacredness of Amritsar in their daily remembrance.

Lectures=-=-=-=-Professor Balbinder Singh Bhogal (Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies, Hofstra University) will lead, over the span of four days, the primary lecture series. Professor Bhogal will lecture on topics including the Sikh code of conduct, the Sikh vision of history and time, and related issues building up to the issue of 1984.

Harjeet Grewal (PhD candidate in Sikh Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor),will a series of lectures on topics as various as Bhai Gurdas, t…